Today we looked at parents unable to leave their children alone at college. This got many of you telling your own stories of leaving the nest, with one in particular delighting and intriguing.

From Admiral_Awesome:

An aunt of mine is a complete and total combination cool-mom-syndrome/helicopter parent, although she'd never admit to it in a million years, and gets really angry when you say that to her. Her family lives in Westport Connecticut, she's a very successful interior designer with a line of products (you might know her name), her husband is a dentist, and they have two boys, one in HS, the other in college.

She rented out a nightclub and hired strippers for her younger sons Bar Mitzvah, lets the kids and all their friends drink and smoke pot openly at their house, threw a 400-guest fully catered graduation party with an open bar and cocktail waitresses, they each get a new car every year... you get the idea.

Anyway, the dad is pretty much an absentee (kind of a dick altogether), and more concerned with his tennis club and social circle than his wife (my aunt), so the older son was always kind of a surrogate to her, running errands, doing household stuff, and generally treated like the man of the house. When he had to go off to college (in Boston), she was completely devastated and he was intensely homesick. She had his entire dorm room redecorated in the style of Van Wilder meets Ralph Lauren, and got an apartment near the school to make visits easier. Yeah.

Its gotten a bit better since then, but at this point he's a complete neurotic wreck in general, losing his hair at age 20 and living entirely on Adderall, marijuana and Pepsi. He also decided he was gay. And a Republican. He's a gay Republican. Although that isn't such a shocker, as our family is very conservative in general. Its just a little hilarious.

[Image: Getty]